Perth, Australia

Now you would think that having 8 days of pure relaxation in Bali would have prepared us for out final month of traveling. Not to mention we were so excited to be back in the westernized world, Australia was going to be such a treat for us! Unfortunately that red eye put us in Perth at 4:30am and we were never quite able to recover. We were hugely blessed with the opportunity to stay with someone we had met earlier in our travels (Dave in Greece)! However luck would have it that he was called into work the week before and was stationed on a boat a few hours north for the next month. He still managed to take excellent care of us by bribing his little sister to pick us up at the airport at 4:30am, allowing us to have his room all to ourselves, and arranging his friends to take us out and show us the town. Our first stop, however, would be bed. With no sleep on the plane we were in dire need of a good nap, so with his sister off to work for the day, we passed out until noon. I'm not sure if it is 3 months of traveling catching up with us, 1 month of this unshakable cough iv got going, or maybe even the change in hemispheres, but I woke up that day feeling dreadfully ill. I had a bite to eat and attempted to lay by the pool, but it just wasn't happening, so I crawled back into bed along with my fever, sore throat, headache, stomach, and body aches. I was a mess. I slept a few hours and by evening decided to force myself to do something, mainly because we desperately needed some food. So we showered and walked to the nearest grocery store to buy some yogurt, cereal, and meat for the barbie! When we got home we had a surprise visit from Dave's friends to take us out for the night. I think they could gauge how off we were feeling, so they settled for just a beer at the local pub before taking us back home safe and sound.

We had made plans with them to be picked up the next day at 11am, but come 1pm, they still hadn't arrived, so back to the pool we went! Our entire 3 days in Brisbane were spent lounging by the pool or watching movies on the big screen because we just couldn't get to feeling right. Maybe if transportation had been a bit easier, we would have made more of an effort. However, seeing as how we were in a suburb 20 mins from Perth city and the beach, finding the proper bus and going all that way just to wander aimlessly did not appeal to us. So, we were perfectly content to just relax and recoup some more.

We did have an exciting Thursday night, as Dave's sister Rachel came home from work having received a promotion and wanted to join us for a night on the town. We got all dressed up, borrowing Rachel's fancy dresses and shoes, called up Dave's friend to give us a ride, and off we were to hit the town. To sum up the night- Aussies are insane! It was very fun to experience a night out in Perth, but MAN! What an experience.

With Rachel (left) and roommate Alex (middle left)

We ended up getting along great with Rachel and her roommate Alex and look forward to welcoming them to North America if/when they choose to visit so we can reciprocate the hospitality. We ended our stay with a relaxing pizza and movie night before they drove us to the airport at 10pm. On our way to Brisbane!